The present invention relates in general to the stuffing of luggage such as soft-walled luggage and the like, for display purposes, and in particular, to a new and useful apparatus and method of stuffing luggage for display.
For mass storage and transport, soft-sided luggage such as suitcases, duffle bags, back-packs, toiletry bags, cosmetic cases, tote bags and the like, are collapsed and stocked in as compact a manner as possible. While this configuration is appropriate for minimizing space during storage and transport, it is not appropriate for display. The bag must appear to be full to show its design in a retail store or other points of sale.
It has long been conventional to stuff such soft-sided luggage with paper, or to provide semi-rigid inserts such as cardboard cylinders, boxes and the like, to expand the soft-side luggage to its full position for display.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,894 (Lee), for example, discloses how a plurality of cloth bags can be shipped in a collapsed position with cardboard packing sheets that are initially used to separate layers of luggage, later used in a curled cylindrical position, as stuffing inserts for the bags. U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,451 (Zoland) describes an expandable bag. The actuator is a draw string which releases two cards having a spring. U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,600 (Bailey et al.) describes an expandable insert for soft luggage. An elastic band engages two web members to expand it.
A more elaborate expansion mechanism for soft bags is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,846 (Diamond, et al.). It is also known, for example, from French Patent 2,417,448, published Sep. 14, 1979, to provide an air-tight flexible bladder inside a soft-walled brief case to inflate the brief case for display. The bladder has a filling spout which is filled with air from an exterior source of air such as a pump or the like. It is also known to use a flexible air-tight bladder inside a soft-walled bag or luggage, to convert the bag or luggage into a pillow. See for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,927,471 (Salomon) and 1,864,648 (Haines). Here again, inflation is achieved using exterior sources of air.
It is also known to inflate the side-walls of flexible luggage to provide cushioning. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,587,794 (Mattel). These references do not advocate completely filling the interior space of a luggage since the purpose is to maintain storage space and not to fill the luggage for display purposes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,202 (Lee) discloses a container having inflatable side-walls to protect the contents of the bag with an incorporated manually operated pump for inflating the side-walls.
Whether to inflate the bag for display, as a pillow or to protect goods in the interior of the bag, exterior sources of air have always been utilized to inflate either the luggage filling bladder or the side-walls of the luggage.
It would be impractical to manually inflate soft-sided luggage for display purposes at the point of sale since normally a large number of pieces are displayed at the point of sale. The exertion and time needed for inflating the luggage for display purposes would be impractical. Equally, it would be impractical to maintain inflating apparatus such as air pumps on or around the selling floor.
In fields outside the field of luggage stuffing for display purposes, self-inflating apparatuses are known. An inflatable enclosure using the chemical generation of gas to inflate balloons, flotation equipment or the like, is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,214 (Liebermann). A pair of sealed envelopes are provided in a pouch. Each envelope contains a different reactive component, which when mixed together, generates gas. External pressure ruptures the envelopes instituting the reaction and inflating the enclosure. An inflatable life-belt including CO.sub.2 cartridges is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,114,041 (DiForte). Actuators are provided for piercing the standard CO.sub.2 cartridge that inflates the belt.
Other examples of references disclosing self-inflating apparatus are as follows: U.S. Pat. No. 1,772,674 (Markus) describes an inflating device for safety belts and the like. The actuating means is a button & clasp combination that actuates a compressed air cartridge to inflate the belt. U.S. Pat. No. 2,675,114 (Elikann) describes a life preserver inflating device. U.S. Pat. No. 2,970,326 (Keefe) describes an emergency life saving device. The device has an operating card that pierces a gas container to inflate the device. U.S. Pat. No. 3,014,619 (Moran) describes an inflator for inflatable bodies. The inflator handle is a bell crank lever. U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,309 (Segrest) describes an inflating device. The device includes a pull-cord that actuates a piercing mechanism. U.S. Pat. No. 3,329,982 (Zannoni) describes a life preserver. The actuating means includes a pair of lanyards. U.S. Pat. No. 3,536,232 (Lightcap) describes a target inflation device. The actuating means includes a pin that is unscrewed and removed. U.S. Pat. No. 3,547,165 (Butterworth) describes a gas inflation mechanism. The actuating means includes a pull cord. U.S. Pat. No. 3,704,032 (Fiala) describes an actuating means for inflating crash pads. U.S. Pat. No. 3,833,029 (Munn) describes a method and apparatus for generating gaseous mixtures for inflatable devices wherein the actuating means is a cable or lanyard. U.S. Pat. No. 4,223,805 (Mackal) describes an automatic inflator. U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,393 (Zimmerly) describes an inflator guard. U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,546 (Mackal) describes a snap rivet safety lock for inflators. The actuating means is a lanyard. U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,716 (Mackal) describes a lanyard that actuates an inflator.
The prior art as a whole would not render obvious a mechanism for automatically inflating luggage for display, which is sufficiently economical and reliable to be used for that purpose, without the danger of premature expansion during storage or transit, but with a self-contained gas supply to permit inflation in the simplest, fastest and most economical manner at the point of sale.